Chapter 9 – What's Your Sort?
Lydia joined the line that was forming. Teddy stood behind her, but Freddie pushed in front.
He turned to whisper, "I'll go on ahead. Make sure there's nothing scary."
Lydia grinned.
Neville led the line of new students back out of the chamber into the Entrance Hall. He halted them for a few seconds. The double doors to the Great Hall swung open and they filed through.
Many of the other first-years gasped and looked around and upwards to the enchanted ceiling. It was as dark as the night sky with a few moonlit clouds. Lydia looked ahead and basked in the warmth of a smug feeling. Freddie turned to see she was taking it all calmly.
"Stop being cool. It's so uncool," he chided.
"Shh!" she warned.
The line reached the front of the hall. Neville arranged them in a line across the hall, facing the older student sitting at the long house tables. Lydia started to feel her stomach churning. It was not with hunger.
Neville placed a four-legged stool in front of them and put a battered wizard's hat on top of it. The hat was old, grubby and worn-out in places. Lydia did not wish to think about how it might smell. Harry and Ron had told her about the Sorting. She was not worried about the hat as much as she was by all those bigger students staring in her direction.
The hall fell into silence. The hat moved. A tear in the fabric near the brim opened like a mouth. The hat began to sing:
'I know that I'm not really pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A cleverer hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat cannot see,
Please put me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You may be for Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where all are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Perhaps to Slytherin you'll go
To meet your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So try me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!'
The school burst into cheering and clapping as the hat finished. It turned to bow to the house tables, turned back to face the line of first-years, then fell still. Neville walked out in front of them holding a scroll of parchment.
"When I call out your name please step forward, put on the hat and sit on the stool for sorting," he told them, then called out, "Anderson, Odysseus!"
A slim boy with scruffy brown hair stepped out from the line and up to the stool. He took the hat from it, sat down and paused for a moment with the hat held above his head. At a nod from the professor, he put the hat on his head. It slipped down over his ears, hiding most of his face. Nothing seemed to happen for a couple of seconds.
"Ravenclaw!" called out the Sorting Hat.
The students on the second table from the left clapped and cheered. Master Anderson stood up, put the hat back on the stool, ran his fingers through his hair and went to join his new house table.
"Bell, Trixie!" Neville called.
"Gryffindor!" called the hat, within a second of being placed on Miss Bell's head.
The rest of the students followed, one by one, being sorted across the four houses.
"Fortescue, Fredlington," went to Hufflepuff. The girl who had been in the boat with them turned out to be, "Inkwood, Sophie" and she was sorted into Gryffindor. Shortly afterwards "Lupin, Edward," went to join Freddie in Hufflepuff. Now Lydia knew where she wanted to be. Teddy and Freddie were her only real friends here.
It was a long wait for Lydia, being a 'Ward'. Eventually "Twycross, Dean," was placed in Ravenclaw, "Vance, Alison" in Gryffindor, and "Vane, Dylan," also went to Gryffindor. Then it was Lydia's turn.
"Ward, Lydia," Neville announced, He made the "Lydia" sound like he was talking to her as a friend, and the two of them exchanged a smile.
Lydia drew a deep breath. There was a pair of twins, boy and girl, and a surly looking boy left beside her. She stepped forwards away from them and moved to the stool. Now she was exposed in front of the whole school.
"They've all been here," she thought. Taking comfort from this, she raised the old hat and sat on the stool (which was a little high for her). She put the hat over her head. It slid down almost to her shoulders. Luckily it did not smell as badly as she had feared.
There was a silent moment then a voice came from right next to her ear.
"Ah, oh," it murmured. "Well, this is interesting. My goodness, yes. The headteacher said I should expect someone unusual but I have not encountered anyone like this in a thousand years. In fact, my dear, I have only ever known one mind and talent like yours. He was my original owner, before this school was conceived. Well, well, well. This will be tricky."
"Please," Lydia thought, "Harry Potter said that he had told you he wanted to be in Gryffindor. Could I ask to go into Hufflepuff?"
The voice in her ear hummed to itself, then replied, "Actually, Potter only asked not to go into Slytherin. It is my job to do the sorting and I take it very seriously."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to be pushy. I just wanted to be with friends."
"Miss Ward, Lydia, it will be some time before you know who your friends are. You are kind and diligent enough to be a Hufflepuff, brave enough to be a Gryffindor, but the thing I see most clearly is your intelligence. I think you would develop more successfully and feel more at ease in Ravenclaw."
The hat sighed and she felt it slide further down over her head as though sagging with resignation.
"Of course, you could overrule me. You could take control of me and make me say anything you want. You are special. However, I have a lot of experience in this job. Please accept my suggestion and go gladly to Ravenclaw. I believe it will suit you. And it won't prevent you from making friends in other houses, which you really should do. True friends are hard to find."
"I'm sure you know best," Lydia replied, feeling the conversation had taken a bizarre turn.
"Thank you. RAVENCLAW!"
Lydia lifted the hat. Before it left her head, she heard it say, "Say hello to him for me."
Lydia put the hat on the stool behind her and walked to the politely applauding table to her left. The other first-years at the nearest end of the table made room for her. A girl who Lydia recognised as "Ogden, Shona," patted the bench next to where she was sitting, inviting Lydia to join her. Lydia sat by her and looked around. Next to the first-years were some much older students. Lydia noticed they were wearing badges with a letter "P" on them and decided they must be prefects.
"Hi, I'm Shona," said the girl next to her. "What subjects are you looking forward to?"
"Hi, Shona. I'm Lydia," said Lydia, feeling confused and rushed. "Erm, I looking forward to them all, really. I used to like Maths and Science but they don't do much of that here, except Astronomy, I suppose."
"Science, eh?" Shona noted. "Gosh. I really like History. I'm looking forward to the History of Magic."
"Let's hope..." Lydia began but, the last of the new students had been sorted. "Zabini, Corben," had been assigned to Slytherin. Professor McGonagall thanked the students and Professor Longbottom. Then she announced that the feast could begin. No sooner was it said than the food materialised on the serving platters, accompanied by a waft of cooking smells.
"Oh. Wow!" said Shona, echoing similar comments from the rest of the new intake. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
Lydia passed her a serving spoon and continued, "I was saying I hope we don't get Professor Binns for History."
"Why not?" Shona asked, dropping a couple of potatoes from her spoon onto the table.
"Two things: he's a ghost, and he's so boring he sends everyone to sleep," Lydia told her.
"Oh. Have you got a big brother or sister here?" Shona queried.
"No. I'm muggle-born and an only child," Lydia admitted.
"Me, too!" Shona chirped, handing Lydia a bowl of peas and broccoli. "What did you think when your magic started to come out?"
Lydia was about to make up a few incidents based on the things Harry and Ron had told her when someone tapped on her shoulder from behind. She turned to see who it was.
"Hi again, Lydia!"
Behind her were Jessica Vance, a second-year Gryffindor who Lydia had met that May, and Head Girl, Tessa, again. Jessica congratulated Lydia on starting Hogwarts. In jest, she commiserated with her for 'only' getting into Ravenclaw. Lydia was relieved. Shona was not only starting to ask tricky questions but her talking was a bit 'full on'. It left Lydia feeling breathless. Jessica and Tessa did not stay long, but it was long enough that her fellow Ravenclaws were now engrossed in their meal.
Lydia looked across the table to the tousle-haired boy sitting opposite. "Hi. You're Odysseus Anderson, aren't you?"
The boy raised his head to give her a sullen look. "Yeah. They call me Oddy, or just Odd."
"What subjects are you looking forward to?"
The boy had looked down to his food again but answered, "All of them. Well, if they've got books."
"Some of the course books are amazing," Lydia said, thinking she might have found a way in. "I like books but I've never seen books like these."
Odysseus looked up. It seemed a lamp had been lit behind his eyes. "I like the smell of them. They all smell of the different magic they're written about."
"I know! I went to the wizarding university in Nottingham a few months ago. The first thing I noticed was the smell of the books. And all so different. Leathery, spiky and electric."
Odysseus Anderson was grinning now. "I can't wait to get to the library here, especially the restricted section, if I can ever get in. You were lucky. How did you get to go to Nottingham Trent?"
"I was with Harry Potter and my uncle. We went there to see Hermione Granger-Weasley about… some stuff we found."
Every student within earshot stopped and stared at Lydia. Admittedly that did not add up to many. With the chatter of voices and the clatter of cutlery, 'earshot' was not very far. But ten or twelve people, including the nearest prefects, were focused on her, now.
"You know Harry Potter?" Shona beat the others to the question.
"Yeah," said Lydia, with an implied 'of course'. "We stayed with him and Ginny at their house, well, the one in London."
"And you've met Hermione?" asked one of the prefects, a girl with long, straight, raven-black hair.
"Yeah," Lydia nodded. "She's the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, now."
"I know," the prefect admitted. "My dad's an Enforcement Officer."
"Kingsley really likes Hermione," Lydia added, receiving stunned looks.
The rest of the Ravenclaw first-years and their prefects continued to pump Lydia for information on who she knew in the wizarding world. Lydia began to regret the name dropping she had started. She was wary about going into any details about the circumstances in which she made these acquaintances. She decided upon saying that her muggle uncle had known Harry for a long time, but she didn't know how they had met. That seemed to work.
When they finished the pudding course, the plates and platters vanished away. Professor McGonagall rose to her feet. The chattering of the students died down.
"Welcome everyone," she began. "I hope you have all enjoyed your feast. I'm afraid I must ask you all not to fall asleep quite yet. I have a few announcements to make.
"Our new intake of first-years should please note that the forest within the grounds of Hogwarts is forbidden to all students, unless they are accompanied by a member of school staff. And in 'school staff' I do not include Mr Peeves, our resident poltergeist. Please remember that.
"Mr Filch, our caretaker, has reminded me to tell every one of you that no magic is to be used in the corridors between classes. I appreciate your eagerness to practise what you have learned. However, we do not want a repeat of the incident with the suits of armour we had towards the end of last term."
McGonagall glared into the audience, presumably at those responsible for the 'incident'. Lydia, and several other first-years, resolved to find out what had happened.
"As usual," she resumed, "Quidditch trials will be held during the second week of term. Students of second-year or above should contact Madam Hooch in the first instance. She will judge if you can fly well enough before you bother the team captains.
"I should also like you to be aware that this academic year's Head Girl and Head Boy are Tessa Gudgeon of Gryffindor and Thomas Torpington of Hufflepuff. I hope you will all join me in wishing them well."
The Headteacher led a round of applause for them.
She continued. "And I hope, sometimes beyond hope it seems, that you will pay attention when they or the other prefects give you instructions. Bear in mind, Mr Bulstrode and Mr Midgen, that their authority comes directly from me. Defy them and you defy me. Defy me and you will be leaving the school early, with no qualifications and few prospects. Do I make myself clear, gentlemen?"
Lydia could not see the two in question but the whole audience seemed suitably cowed by her words. Even the prefects pulled horrified faces at each other. Lydia decided this couple were another matter she needed to find out about.
McGonagall patted her bun, ensuring not a single hair was out of place.
"Last term," she continued in a lighter tone. "Your headteacher, Professor Lee, had to return to the United States of America at short notice. I was invited to take over temporarily. You will all be delighted to learn that I have agreed to come out of retirement and shall be continuing as headteacher for a good while yet. I suggest you acclimatise yourselves to the idea. In the vernacular, 'deal with it'.
"In other news Professor Longbottom has agreed to take over as the head of Gryffindor House. Madam Hooch, who had temporarily stepped into the position will now focus her energies on broom flying and quidditch. Also, I am pleased to introduce Professor Finch-Fletchley who will be teaching Muggle Studies. He is another former member of Dumbledore's Army."
She said this last sentence with notable pride and smiled a rare smile as a ripple of excitement spread amongst the gathered students. The professor in question stood to take a bow with an easy self-confidence.
"And finally, it is my pleasure to introduce another new professor. Professor Brandon has joined the school to teach Arithmancy."
Another figure at the top table rose to bow to the assembly. With sleek black hair, he did not look old, but was portly and seemed shy. Lydia had not noticed any mention of Arithmancy among her new school books. She assumed it must be one of the optional subjects taken in the later years. It sounded like something she would be interested to learn.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen," Professor McGonagall concluded. "It is time for you all to be away to your beds."
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